Commercial PropertyCool Benefits With RE/MAX, Cendant Franchise Brands
When GMAC Real Estate announced that it has a new insurance package designed for real estate affiliates by its sister company GMAC Insurance, it prompted Realty Times to investigate - what do other franchises offer? Does it really pay to affiliate with a large franchise?
It seems that if an independent contractor wants employee-level benefits such as special deals on insurance, one way to get them is to affiliate with a large franchise such as RE/MAX International or a Cendant brand such as Coldwell Banker, Century 21, ERA or NRT.
Franchises such as these are able to leverage their access to large numbers of independent contractor affiliates (RE/MAX - 48,000, Cendant Real Estate Brands - 200,000) to enable them to offer benefits to their independent contractor affiliates by creating alliances through strategic partners.
Independent contractors will agree that the toughest and most expensive benefit to get is health insurance, but licensees may be surprised to learn that franchise brands can deliver a broad range of benefits that are as diverse as hard-to-get risk insurance to discounts on rental cars and hotel rooms, among other benefits.
"The importance of any benefit would be judged in relation to what any individual agent or franchisee might consider most valuable to her/his career and life," suggests Steve Ozonian, senior vice president of RE/MAX International.
RE/MAX goes the strategic partner route to provide the RE/MAX Health Insurance program for RE/MAX members. The partners are Marsh Affinity Services and HealthInsurance.com, and the health benefits include Major Medical, Preferred Provider Option, and Medical Savings Accounts.
"RE/MAX also offers a national (U.S.) Errors & Omissions insurance program that is exclusive to RE/MAX franchisees," says Ozonian, "and of course, we offer many other affiliation benefits -- some "standard fair" such as the Approved Supplier program, offering volume buying and/or discounts on products, services, technology products and software, business (office and agent) products and software. Also, RE/MAX has a strong educational program (and continuing education classes) through RE/MAX Satellite Network, at conventions and other venues, and we offer
RE/MAX Mainstreet (a proprietary "extranet" for RE/MAX members,) another valuable communications, file sharing and educational tool. And, RE/MAX offers relocation, corporate and commercial services and programs as well as RE/MAX Renowned Properties (luxury properties.)"
Ozonian concludes, "It goes without saying that we believe the RE/MAX brand name, image and business model are among our most valuable assets for members. We believe that RE/MAX technology products and services are the best in the industry -- and they are always cutting-edge."
Not to be outdone, Cendant spokespersons say their brands also offer health insurance benefits through The Cendant Real Estate Services Division. Through an agreement with Financial Independence Company Insurance Services (FICIS) of Woodland Hills, California, Cendant is able to provide limited indemnity health insurance plans, discount medical cards and critical care illness coverage for the franchisees and sales associates of the four brands that comprise the Cendant Real Estate Franchise Group.
"The FICIS relationship is part of each of our brands own unique preferred alliance program for affiliates - Century 21® Business Benefits®, Coldwell Banker® Business Advantage®, and ERA® Select Business Services® - which
provide a wide array of discounted products and services for our respective brokers and sales associates," explains a spokesperson.
"We have also incorporated discounts at Cendant sister company services into these programs for sales associates including, but not limited to AVIS and Budget car rentals, Jackson Hewitt (tax services), and each of the hotel franchise brands (Days Inn, Knights Inn, Super 8, Howard Johnson, Villager, Travelodge, Wingate Inn, Ramada and Amerihost Inn & Suites," says the spokesperson.
Cendant also has a timeshare group, through Fairfield Resorts, RCI and TrendWest where associates can get some fun in the sun.